On: A Medieval Grape Is Still Used to Make Wine

[pjc50]

Rather odd to talk about wine continuity across the centuries without mentioning phylloxera: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_French_Wine_Blight

So the seeds might be the same, but the roots often aren't.

[th0ma5 → pjc50]

I kept seeing somewhere for a while that Ohio based grape varieties are used for the root stock now used, but I can't find this anywhere now. Perhaps it isn't accurate.

[wjp3 → th0ma5]

Uncertain that they were from Ohio, but it was (and is) American rootstock that’s used to combat the parasite.

[convivialdingo → wjp3]

I had read earlier that the rootstock came from Ingleside, near Corpus Christi, TX. Wikipedia says they came from Temple, TX.

[amyjess → th0ma5]

I was actually just talking to a coworker last week about this, and he told me that modern rootstock almost entirely comes from Grayson County, Texas (a.k.a. the Sherman-Denison MSA, just north of the Dallas area).

Interestingly enough, a few weeks ago I had a Riesling from Washington that had "100% vinifera rootstock" prominently printed on the label. Not every part of the world got hit by phylloxera. I understand that some parts of South America (either Argentina or Chile, I can't remember) were spared as well.

[plugger → amyjess]

There are still pre-phylloxera vines in South Australia as well that are over 150 years old.